Episode 94 – The Horror in the Museum

Episode 94 – The Horror in the Museum

Tune in to hear us and guest Brooke Fong wax on about The Horror in the Museum, by H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald. This week’s reader and fan favorite Anthony Tedesco lays down the kinda creep we like.

All the weird fiction you can stand is on sale now at MiskatonicBooks.com! Listen to the show to get your discount code, then snap up the arcane lore!

Paul Maclean of Yog-Sothoth.com was kind enough to host Chris at Innsmouth House – thanks a ton Paul!

This is the first time I read a story specifically for this podcast and I have to say I echo your thoughts on it. I have never read or even really heard of this story before, and I was really pleasantly surprised by it. It had the elements of The Hound (hipster macabre-hunter) and Pickman’s Model (creepy genius artist) that I love, plus that ever popular Scooby-Doo story line (spend the night in a creepy place!)

I cannot BELIEVE that y’all think this gawd-awful story is good — or as you say, great! Ia! The story is so poorly-written, so absurd and downright stupid, that I was shocked when it was added to ye Centipede Press edition of Lovecraft wherein “The Hound” and “The Unnamable” were dropped. I have long-protested that Grandpa was mocking his own style when he penned “The Hound,” but “The Horror in the Museum” seems sheer parody of his work, worse than any of Derleth’s Mythos wank. Now, by saying that, I don’t say the tale isn’t entertaining and enjoyable. I saw only that it is awful compared to HPL’s serious work, over-the-top with melodramatic touches that enhance the poor quality of the writing. Ugh!

Grandpa Theobald on

October 20, 2011 at 11:57 AM

This story was wonderful. I especially like the reference to Yuggoth, home of the Mi-Go and the place Ghatanothoa came from. (On a side-note, when You Guys do “Out of the Aeons” there’s a reference to Swami Chandraputra, the alter ego Randolph Carter took on when He inhabited the body of the Nug-Soth Wizard Zkauba)

One thing that really stood out, though, was the fact that Orobona KILLED Rhan-Tegoth. THAT was COOL!

This was a fun one. Thanks! And the very end tag of the show was hilarious. Had me laughing out loud. As to the story – it was a good one in the way that good writers make hackneyed stories better by virtue of their mastery, but I agree with Wilum that compared to HPL’s best stuff it sorta laid there like a multi-punctured dog. Really really enjoyed the guests and the show, however!

Radovarl on

October 21, 2011 at 3:55 AM

I have to echo Wilum Pugmire’s thoughts on this one–just dreadful. Though of course your coverage of it was entertaining as usual.

Chris Lackey on

October 21, 2011 at 8:16 AM

I know this story is ridiculous, I just couldn’t help loving it. It really is like a bizarre episode of Scooby-Doo and I’m guessing that’s what appealed to me about it.

I’ve always enjoyed the Hazel Heald collabs because they were short and sweet.

You mentioned that George Rogers was the ‘Pickman of Wax’ and now that you mention it, this story is almost like a reprise of Pickman’s Model with a similar setup, twist and resolution, only not as well executed.

Nevertheless the story does have its awesome moments, particularly the scene where Stephen Jones is sitting all ‘alone’ in the stifling darkness, when all the while George Rogers is creeping about in his Dimensional Shambler costume. That long passage of time through the night when you think you are all alone or feel completely isolated, but are in fact subject to some hidden danger, reminds me of movies like When a Stranger Calls or the original Black Christmas. As Genus pointed out, Night at the Museum also pulls something similar when all the while you think he’s alone in the museum spoiler in title. It’s hard to describe exactly what I’m getting from this story, but I still like it.

Also I can’t believe Chad passed off the chance to crack a joke about Paul being the Whisperer in Darkness. It sounded like you were thinking about it.

First, it’s always fun with the Lovecraft collaborations/ghostwriting to try to figure out what the original writer’s idea was that HPL snatched up and ran for the horizon with. In this case, I’d bet money that Hazel Heald’s Big Scary Idea was something like “a man spends the night in a wax museum.”

Second: George Rogers is apparently a free-lance Mythos Indiana Jones, mounting expeditions all over the world to recover ancient horrors, and he somehow manages all that on the proceeds from a two-bit wax museum! I want to run a roleplaying game about the exploits of George Rogers. He’s got a GOD in the basement!

@Grandpa Theobald – I haven’t reread it since listening to the podcast, but I thought the idea was that Rhan-Tegoth merely appears to be a statue when he’s not moving, and it’s actually the god himself that’s sitting there. I mean, he mosquito-bit/smooshed/dessicated Rogers and the dog after all, so he must have been alive while he was in the museum, and I never got the impression that Orobona clocked Rhan-Tegoth behind the head while he was eating or anything.

Grandpa Theobald on

October 25, 2011 at 9:35 AM

@Jason Thompson ~ Orobona described how He had had to “finish” the Sacrifice Statue himself and how the process had made several loud bangs (I believe He claimed from the furnace) that people in the nearby streets had sworn were Gunshots. That, combined with how Rogers said Orobona HATED Rhan-Tegoth makes what happened pretty obvious. ^_^

Antoine D on

October 26, 2011 at 10:05 PM

Okay, this doesn’t have to do with the Horror in the Museum, but I just saw that the Call of Cthulu reading is up on iTunes!!! Oh my god, it can’t download fast enough!

Sam on

October 27, 2011 at 8:56 AM

I’m surprised you guys didn’t comment on Lovecraft’s subconscious racism which is further evidenced here by the use of the verb “sniggering.”

Seriously tho, I had never heard that word before…

And glad you also noticed the Scooby-Dooness of this story as well. I was also drawing parallels to “The Wicker Man” — the idea of a protagonist (almost) being honourably made a human sacrifice to elder-god; the giant macabre effigies, and furtive glances galore. This one was just loaded with goodies!

Man Who Collected Lovecraft on

November 28, 2011 at 11:32 AM

Madame Demers was a woman who was killed brutally by her husband, Napoleon Demers, in Montreal in about 1896. This was a hugely sensational case of which Lovecraft would have been well aware and which was often depicted in a “horror of horrors” fashion much like the Ripper Murders.

[…] If you don’t know who HP Lovecraft is, don’t worry about it. I still find his stories to be incredibly arduous to read, which is why there are great podcasts about his work (of which Brooke researches for from time to time and can be heard in this episode!) […]

just re-listening to this podcast and noticed that the description of the dead dog is really similar to the description of the dead guy at the end of ‘the willows’ by Algernon Blackwood. – lovecrafts’ favorite horror story, apparently. you think he might have lifted it? after all he was writing this as a ghost writer, so he wouldn’t be likely to get picked up on this (potential) spot of plagiarism. i thought it was interesting anyway 🙂 keep going with the premium site guys, its cool 😀 C

I’ve now re-read the story in the S. T. Joshi annotated editions from Arcane Wisdom Press, and I have to admit it’s a lot of fun. The story makes me think back on the days when I worked as a vampire at the Jones Fantastic Museum here in Seattle, wherein we had a way cool “Chamber of Horrors.” I miss that place.

BreeLandwalker on

May 7, 2014 at 5:26 AM

Hurray, my other favorite HPL cheesepuff! I know perfectly well that Horror and Pickman’s are the literary equivalent of B-movies that are so camp that they’re coming back the other way brilliant, but then again the Primitive Screwheads edition of “Army of Darkness” holds a place of honor on my shelf. Bloody good fun!

Brainfisch on

October 9, 2015 at 12:25 PM

Going through all your back catalogue I get the impression, I am the only one who has not read the Necronomicon yet.

@Cambias you can be certain that the fainting parts are pure lovecraft.